Charlemagne: a Magnificent Phenomenon to the Peoples of Europe
The stability and “nation-state” have disappeared since the coming of “the Barbarians” out of central Europe in the first centuries. The Franks in old Gaul and the Lombards in Italy were the major powers. The Lombardic kingdom was well developed and Romanized, while Franks were considered barbaric. However, by the middle 700s, the Lombards were extinct and the Frankish kingdom rises with Charlemagne, who emerged with the drive to attempt to recreate the glory of the old Roman Empire. Because of the precedent events of Charlemagne’s predecessors Charles Martel and Pepin III, he becomes the king of the Franks who unites under his authority half of the continent and becomes the first Holy Roman emperor, who propagates Christianity and encourages universal literacy, however, could not pass his best traits to his heirs which leads to the collapse of the Carolingian Empire and causes long-lasting consequences on the future of Europe.
The emergence of the empire of Charlemagne was predetermined by the deeds of at least two of his predecessors. The first was Charles Martel (c. 688–741), who consolidated control over Merovingian domains and the Frankish royal administration. Charles paid great attention to his relatively small army. According to the tradition of the Germanic tribes, the Franks preferred the infantry, but he tried to create a good cavalry. The main striking force was heavily armed with knights. With his army, Charles defeated the Saxons, Friezes, Allemans, Bavars, making them the areas of his tributaries. In return for conquering these areas and converting them to Christianity, their leader Boniface brought him into contact with the papacy.
In 732, Spanish Arabs invaded Gaul moving to Paris. The Arabs were defeated and retreated leaving the winners with a rich convoy. After 5 years they again tried to seize the possession of the Franks and again were defeated by the Martel “The Hammer”. He became the founder of the royal Carolingian dynasty. Pepin III, the son of Charles Martel, inherited his possessions. The Frankish nobility at a meeting in Soissons in 751 proclaimed him king. The overthrown, powerless king Childeric III of Merovingian was imprisoned in a monastery. With the established alliance with the pope who blessed these changes, Pepin III defeated the Lombard army and helped create the papal state in Italy. After the death of Pepin the Short, two sons remained - Charles and Carloman, who inherited the Frankish kingdom from him. The Franks approved the kingship of both brothers and made it a condition that Charles retained the northern and western regions of the kingdom and Carloman - central and southeastern to the border with Italy and Bavaria. The terms were accepted, and each of the kings received its share.
The agreement between them was preserved with the greatest difficulty because many of Carloman’s entourage tried to quarrel with the brothers and even bring a war. The subsequent course of events eliminated the danger and revealed the true reason for the enmity. After the death of Carloman in 771, his widow with her sons and the noblest of the courtiers fled to Italy to seek Desiderius, king of the Lombard, for protection. Charles, who is more known to the French as Charlemagne, after the death of his brother, was by universal consent proclaimed the single king of the Franks in 768. Charlemagne managed to unite the Franks by attacking an outside enemy. His conquests of the Lombard kingdom of northern Italy, portions of central Europe, and Catalina provided Charlemagne with new lands and loyalty from his followers. With great power, Charlemagne took care of the revival of spiritual culture following the example of the Roman Empire, established the Academy, and diplomatic relations with other sovereigns, in particular, with the Arab caliph Harun al-Rashid, who sent him a gift of living elephant and the keys to Jerusalem.
Charlemagne strengthened his state not only by the power of the army but also by spreading Christianity and enlightenment among the Germanic tribes. He was helped by a monk missionary from England, who later was elevated to the rank of bishop under the name Boniface. They managed to strengthen the power of the monarchy by taking estates from many landowners, dividing them between monasteries and their faithful vassals, and leaving a significant part to themselves. Charlemagne carried out administrative reform establishing a monarchy, which was ruled by the king, the palace court, and the chancellery. He established a network of officials who convened local courts, established tolls, administered royal lands, and collected taxes. He created a new coinage system to facilitate transactions and trade. Also, he published his laws in 'capitularies,' and his court sent missi, special messengers, to relay his instructions and report back on the conduct of local administrators.
This was the system of governance in Europe reaching many parts of the Continent and setting a standard for royal administration that would be emulated for centuries. The most important event of Charlemagne was the dissemination of education, mainly through monastic schools, and the revival of ancient culture, largely borrowed from Byzantium. It was an organized community consisting of representatives of different nations. These people were refined in rhetoric, read their compositions, and had philosophical conversations. They used the Latin language, preferring figurative expressions and allegories. However, with all the talents of Charlemagne as a commander and statesman, he was not able to rekindle the glow of the Renaissance, an era of rapid fermentation of thought, a steady renewal of culture. Even an outstanding personality cannot dramatically change the development of society. In those days, the gigantic empire consisted of parts that were too heterogeneous and not united by a single ideology and culture. The monarch himself did not have a specific residence. Because of enormous territories, he was forced to wander from one estate to another in order to feed his vast retinue, guards, and officials and keep the country under control.
The reign of Charlemagne shone with a brief light. Such a vast empire was able to unite and keep under one power for 40 years, partly with the help of the skillful techniques of Roman rule, which were preserved in Byzantium and transferred to the West through the church. However, the seniors and magnates did not want to serve as obedient instruments of supreme power, such as the Byzantine strategists, commanders, and officials. There was no question of subordination to the state in Charlemagne's empire. The government under Charlemagne's reign set the feudal system. Poor and simple people in the social pyramid obeyed the strong and rich and had no chance for growth; all served only to certain individuals. The expansion of the empire helped Charlemagne to unify Christian society. He glorified the rituals of churches, created reforms of rules of worship, and prohibited pagan practices. He approved the papal election and protected the pope from enemies. In 800, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne “Emperor of the Romans”. However, Charlemagne did not need it since he was already an emperor in his own right. The initiative of the coronation came from the pontiff. This was a precedent for political superiority that the pope would claim overall rulers later in the future. However, Charlemagne did not recognize any distinction between religion and politics, but he understood the steps that needed to be taken. He believed the church and state should be allied as forces in the unification of society.
The idea of a 'restored' Roman Empire had a long fate and played a huge role in the political history of Europe. Meanwhile, perhaps Charlemagne did not conceive anything like this, but the motive of the symbolic act indicated the desire of Pope Leo III to enlist a powerful ally in front of the ranks of the Roman magnates. The conquest of Italy and the support of the papacy led to a clash with Byzantium. Under these conditions, Charlemagne was looking for new allies and even established relations with the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad. The imperial title was a significant event which meant independence and superiority; coronation continued until the nineteenth century. This was a revival of the western Roman Empire and developed the self-consciousness of Western Europe. “The following centuries were marked by a dramatic struggle of emperors and kings with the popes. During the 12th and 13th centuries, papal power greatly increased”.
Emperor Charlemagne himself produced the greatest charm and carried away the masses; with his death, it was all over. His best qualities were not transferred to the heirs of his title. Soon his empire and all its accomplishments dissolved. Lothar I, Louis II, and Charles the Bald are the grandsons of Charlemagne who put to an end his legacy. There were no clear laws of succession, so the brothers split the lands of the Frankish state, which at that time covered most of modern Europe. On August 10, 843, an agreement to divide the country into three parts concluded. Louis the German, the middle brother, got the land which was the basis of modern Germany. The youngest of the brothers, Charles the Bald inherited what will become France. The central areas, which were a strip between them and included Italy, and the imperial title of father went to Lothar, the elder brother. After his death, it split into 3 kingdoms: Lotharingia, Italy, and Provence.
The Kingdom of Lothar was an uneven wedge of land stretching from the North Sea to Central Italy. It included Aachen and Rome, the new and old capitals of the empire. The geographical position of this kingdom was very inconvenient, it did not define much of its borders. As well as it did not have a single language and culture. It was neither German nor French and rather resembled a bone thrown between two dogs. The middle part of the empire had both French and German speakers, and neighboring nations would consider ethnically part of their nation. It was the first rise of national identity. For eleven centuries there was a dispute over these lands between France and Germany. This in-between territory led to enormous historical consequences such as The Thirty Years War (1618-1648), The Nine Years War (1697), The War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1714), the pre-Napoleonic battles of the French Revolution (1789-1799), the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the World War I (1914-1918), and World War II (1939-1945).
Charlemagne's unification actions and his son’s splitting of the empire between three heirs interacted with a notion that came centuries later. However, he tried to manage to unite different peoples under his authority on the principles that remain relevant until now. The idea that “we are one world, although we are different”, laid the foundation of the European Union, which comes from the Carolingian era. Since the fall of Rome, the Carolingian Empire was the largest western territory. Powerful emperor Charlemagne made many activities of unification of disparate Germanic tribes into one harmonious state, who were in danger of losing their nationality or remaining uncivilized. He transferred to the German nation the power of the Roman Empire by using Church as a social glue to make allies and spread Christianity. Charlemagne puts a great impression of his power of holding in harmony foreign and partly hostile to each other peoples, directing their forces to common goals, protecting and bringing order in his empire with the power of justice, religion, and education. He remains a magnificent phenomenon to the peoples of Europe as a commander, legislator, and founder of the empire. Unfortunately, after his death, the empire with its enormous territories collapsed in three major parts which created many wars for middle territory due to the nationalism.
